History

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Early
history

Cornelius Shea, first General President of the Teamsters, circa
1905

The American Federation of
Labor (AFL) had helped form local unions of teamsters since
1887. In November 1898, the AFL organized the Team Drivers'
International Union (TDIU).[2][3] In
1901, a group of Teamsters in Chicago,
Illinois, broke from the TDIU and formed the Teamsters National
Union.[2]
The new union permitted only employees, teamster helpers, and
owner-operators owning only a single team to join, unlike the TDIU
(which permitted large employers to be members), and was more
aggressive than the TDIU in advocating higher wages and shorter
hours.[2]
Claiming more than 28,000 members in 47 locals, its president,
Albert Young, applied for membership in the AFL. The AFL asked the
TDIU to merge with Young's union to form a new, AFL-affiliated
union and the two groups did so in 1903, creating the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).[3]Cornelius Shea
was elected the new union's first president.[2][3]
Shea's election was a tumultuous one. Shea effectively controlled
the convention because the Chicago locals—representing nearly half
the IBT's membership[4]—were
united in their support for his candidacy. Shea was opposed by John
Sheridan, president of the Ice Drivers' Union of Chicago. Sheridan
and George Innes, president of the TDIU, accused Shea of
embezzlement in an attempt to prevent his election.[5] Shea
won election on August 8, 1903, by a vote of 605 to 480. Edward L.
Turley of Chicago was elected secretary-treasurer and Albert Young
general organizer.[6][7]

The union, like most unions within the American Federation of
Labor (AFL) at the time, was largely decentralized, with a
number of local unions that governed themselves autonomously and
tended to look only after their own interests in the geographical
jurisdiction in which they operated.[8][9][10]
The Teamsters were vitally important to the labor movement, for a
strike or sympathy strike
by the Teamsters could paralyze the movement of goods throughout
the city and bring a strike into nearly every neighborhood.[4]
It also meant that Teamsters leaders were able to demand bribes in
order to avoid strikes, and control of a Teamsters local could
bring organized
crime significant revenues. During Shea's presidency, the
entire Teamsters union was notoriously corrupt.[11][12][13]
Noted labor historianJohn R. Commons
famously concluded that during this time, the Teamsters were less a
union and more a criminal organization.[14]

Several major strikes occupied the union in its first three
years. In November 1903, Teamsters employed by the Chicago
City Railway went out on strike. Shea attempted to stop
sympathy strikes by other Teamster locals, but three locals walked
out and eventually disaffiliated over the sympathy strike
issue.[15] A
sympathy strike in support of 18,000 striking meat cutters in
Chicago in July 1904 led to riots before the extensive use of strikebreakers led
Shea to force his members back to work (leading to the collapse of
the meat cutters' strike).[11][16][17]
In the midst of the strife in 1904, Shea was re-elected by
acclamation on August 8, 1904, at the Teamsters convention in Cincinnati, Ohio.[17]
Under his leadership, the union had expanded to nearly 50,000
members in 821 locals in 300 cities, making the Teamsters one of
the largest unions in the United States.[11]
In 1905, 10,000 Teamsters struck
in support of locked out tailors at Montgomery
Ward, and eventually more than 25,000 Teamsters were on the
picket line.[18][19][20]
But when local newspapers discovered that Shea was living in a
local brothel, kept a 19-year-old waitress as a mistress, and had
spent the strike hosting parties, public support for the strike
collapsed and the strike ended on August 1, 1905.[18][20][21][22]
Despite the revelations, Shea won re-election on August 12, 1905,
by a vote of 129 to 121.[23]

Shea was re-elected again in 1905 and 1906, although significant
challenges to his presidency occurred each time.[24]
Shea's first trial on charges stemming from the 1905 Montgomery
Ward strike ended in a mistrial.[25]
However, during the 1906 re-election Shea had promised that he
would resign the presidency once his trial had ended.[26]
But he did not, and most union members withdrew their support for
him.[26]Daniel J.
Tobin of Boston was elected Shea's successor by a vote of 104
to 94 in August 1907.[27]

Organizing
and growth during the Great Depression

Tobin was president of the Teamsters from 1907 to 1952. Although
he faced opposition in his re-election races in 1908, 1909 and
1910, he never faced opposition again until his retirement in
1952.[28]

The Teamsters began to expand dramatically and mature
organizationally under Tobin. He pushed for the development of
"joint councils" to which all local unions were forced to
affiliate. Varying in geographical and industrial jurisdiction, the
joint councils became important incubators for up-and-coming
leadership and negotiating master agreements which covered all
employers in a given industry. Tobin also actively discouraged
strikes in order to bring discipline to the union and encourage
employers to sign contracts, and founded and edited the union
magazine, the International Teamster.[8][9][10][29][30]
Under Tobin, the Teamsters also first developed the "regional
conference" system (developed by Dave Beck in Seattle), which provided stability, organizing
strength, and leadership to the international union.[9]

Tobin undertook long jurisdictional battles with many unions
during this period. Fierce disputes occurred between the Teamsters
and the Gasoline State Operators' National Council (an AFL federal union of gas
station attendants), the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union, the Retail Clerks
International Union, and the Brotherhood
of Railway Clerks.[9][31]
The most significant disagreement, however, was with the
United Brewery Workers over the right to represent beer wagon
drivers. While the Teamsters lost this battle in 1913, when the AFL
awarded jurisdiction to the Brewers, they won when the issue came
before the AFL Executive Board again in 1933, when the Brewers were
still recovering from their near-elimination during Prohibition.[9][28][32][33] The
raids and new member organizing in the 1930s led to significant
membership increases. Teamster membership stood at just 82,000 in
1932. Tobin took advantage of the wave of pro-union sentiment
engendered by the passage of the National Industrial
Recovery Act, and by 1935 union membership had increased nearly
65 percent to 135,000. By 1941, Tobin had a dues-paying membership
of 530,000—making the Teamsters the fastest-growing labor union in
the United States.[9]

One of the most significant events in union history occurred in
1934. A group of radicals in Local 574 in Minneapolis—led by Farrell Dobbs, Carl Skoglund, and the Dunne brothers
(Ray, Miles and Grant), all members of the TrotskyiteCommunist League of
America)—began successfully organizing coal truck drivers in
the winter of 1933.[34]
Tobin, an ardent anti-communist,[35]
opposed their efforts and refused to support their 1933 strike.[34]
Local 574 struck again in 1934, leading to several riots over a
nine-day period in May.[34]
When the employers' association reneged on the agreement, Local 574
resumed the strike, although it ended again after nine days when martial law was
declared by GovernorFloyd B.
Olson.[34]
Although Local 574 won a contract recognizing the union and which
broke the back of the anti-union Citizens Alliance in Minneapolis,
Tobin expelled Local 574 from the Teamsters. Member outrage was
extensive, and in August 1936 he was forced to recharter the local
as 544.[9][31][34][36]
Within a year the newly formed Local 544 had organized 250,000
truckers in the Midwest and formed the Central Conference of
Teamsters.[9][31][34][36]

Extensive organizing also occurred in the West. Harry Bridges,
radical leader of the International
Longshoremen's Association (ILA), was leading "the march
inland"—an attempt to organize warehouse workers away from shipping
ports.[9][37]
Alarmed by Bridges' radical politics and worried that the ILA would
encroach on Teamster jurisdictions, Dave Beck formed a large
regional organization (the Western Conference of Teamsters) to
engage in fierce organizing battles and membership raids against
the ILA which led to the establishment of many new locals and the
organization of tens of thousands of new members.[9][38]

But corruption became even more widespread in the Teamsters
during the Tobin administration. By 1941, the union was considered
the most corrupt in the United States, and the most abusive towards
its own members. Tobin vigorously defended the union against such
accusations, but also instituted many constitutional and
organizational changes and practices which made it easier for union
officials to engage in criminal offenses.[39]

World War II and the
post-war period

By the beginning of World War II, the Teamsters was one of the
most powerful unions in the country, and Teamster leaders
influential in the corridors of power. Union membership had risen
more than 390 percent between 1935 and 1941 to 530,000.[9]
In June 1940, President Franklin
Roosevelt appointed General President Dan Tobin to be the
official White House liaison to organized labor, and later that
year chair of the Labor Division of the Democratic National
Committee.[9][40] In
1942, President Roosevelt appointed Tobin special representative to
the United
Kingdom and charged him with investigating the state of the
labor movement there.[41] Tobin
was considered three times for Secretary of Labor, and twice
refused the post—in 1943 and 1947.[42] On
September 23, 1944, Roosevelt gave his famous "Fala speech" while
campaigning in the 1944 presidential election. Because of
Roosevelt's strong relationship with Tobin and the union's large
membership, the President delivered his speech before the Teamster
convention.[9]

Nonetheless, Teamsters members were restive. Dissident members
of the union accused the leadership of suppressing democracy in the
union, a charge President Tobin angrily denied.[43] Over
the next year, Tobin cracked down on dissidents and trusteed
several large locals led by his political opponents.[44]

During World War
II, The Teamsters strongly endorsed the American labor
movement's no-strike pledge. The Teamsters agreed to cease raiding
other unions and not strike for the duration of the national
emergency. President Tobin even ordered Teamsters members to cross
picket lines put up by other unions. Nevertheless, the national
leadership sanctioned strikes by Midwestern truckers in August
1942, Southern truckers in October 1943, and brewery workers and
milk delivery drivers in January 1945.[30][45] The
Teamsters did not, however, participate in the great post-war wave
of labor strikes. In the two years following the cessation of
hostilities, the Teamsters struck only three times: 10,000 truckers
in New Jersey struck for two weeks; workers at United Parcel Service struck nationwide for three
weeks; and workers at Railway Express Agency struck
for almost a month.[46]

Teamsters leaders strongly opposed enactment of the Taft-Hartley Act and repeatedly called for
its repeal. President Tobin, however, was one of the first labor
leaders to sign the non-communist affidavit required by the
law.[47]

The great wave of organizing which the union engaged in during
the Great Depression and the war significantly boosted the
political power of a number of regional Teamsters leaders, and the
leadership of the union engaged in a number of power struggles in
the post-war period. By 1949, the union's membership had topped one
million.[48] Dave
Beck (elected an international vice-president in 1940) was
increasingly influential in the international union, and Tobin
attempted to check his growing power but failed.[9]
In 1946, Beck successfully overcame Tobin's opposition and won
approval of an amendment to the union's constitution creating the
post of executive vice-president. Beck then won the 1947 election
to fill the position.[29]
Beck also successfully opposed in 1947 a Tobin-backed dues increase
to fund new organizing.[49] The
following year, Beck was able to demand the ouster of the editor of
International Teamster magazine and install his own man in
the job.[50]

In 1948, Beck allied with his long-time rival Jimmy Hoffa and
effectively seized control of the union. He announced a raid on the
International Association of Machinists
local at Boeing. Although
President Dan Tobin publicly repudiated Beck's actions, Beck had
more than enough support from Hoffa and other members of the
executive board to force Tobin to back down.[51] Five
months later, Beck won approval of a plan to dissolve the union's
four divisions and replace them with 16 divisions organized around
each of the major job categories in the union's membership.[52] In
1951, Tom Hickey, reformist leader of the Teamsters in New York
City, won election to the Teamsters executive board. Tobin needed
Beck's support to prevent Hickey's election, and Beck refused to
give it.[53]

On September 4, 1952, Tobin announced he would step down as
president of the Teamsters at the end of his term.[54] At
the union's 1952 convention, Beck was elected General President and
pushed through a number of changes intended to make it harder for a
challenger to build the necessary majority to unseat a president or
reject his policies.[55]

The influence of organized
crime

Beck was elected to the Executive Council of the AFL on August
13, 1953, but his election generated a tremendous political battle
between AFL President George Meany, who supported his election,
and federation vice presidents who felt Beck was corrupt and should
not be elected to the post.[56] Beck
was the first Teamster president to negotiate a nationwide master
contract and a national grievance arbitration plan,[57]
established organizing drives in the Deep South[58] and
the East,[59] and
built the current Teamsters headquarters (the "Marble Palace") in
Washington,
D.C. on Louisiana Avenue NW (across a small plaza from the United
States Senate).[60] But
his intervention in a construction and a milk strike (both centered
on New York City), and refusal to intervene in a Northeastern trucking strike
created major political problems for him.[61]
Perceiving Beck to be weak, Jimmy Hoffa began challenging Beck on
various union decisions and policies in 1956 with an eye to
unseating him as General President in the regularly scheduled union
elections in 1957.[62]

Infiltration by organized crime dominated the agenda of the
Teamsters throughout the 1950s. The Teamsters had suffered from
extensive corruption since its formation in 1903.[11][12][13]
Although the more extreme, public forms of corruption had been
eliminated after General President Cornelius Shea was removed from
office, the extent of corruption and control by organized crime
increased during General President Tobin's time in office (1907 to
1952).[9][12][22][63] In
1929, the Teamsters and unions in Chicago even approached gangster
Roger Touhy and
asked for his protection from Al Capone and his Chicago Outfit, which were seeking to
control the area's unions.[64]
Evidence of widespread corruption within the Teamsters began
emerging shortly after Tobin retired.[65] In
Kansas City, corrupt Teamsters locals spent years seeking bribes,
embezzling money, and engaging in extensive extortion and labor
rackets as well as beatings, vandalism and even bombings in an
attempt to control the construction and trucking industries.[22][66] The
problem was so serious that the U.S. House of Representatives held
hearings on the issue.[67]

The Select Committee (also known as the McClellan Committee,
after its chairman), exposed widespread corruption in the Teamsters
union. Dave Beck fled the country for a month to avoid its
subpoenas before returning.[76] Four
of the paper locals were dissolved to avoid committee scrutiny,
several Teamster staffers were charged with contempt of Congress,
and union records were lost or destroyed (allegedly on purpose),
and wiretaps were played in public before a national television
audience in which Dio and Hoffa discussed the creation of even more
paper locals.[77]
Evidence was unearthed of a mob-sponsored plot in which Oregon
Teamsters unions would seize control of the state legislature,
state police, and state attorney general's office through bribery,
extortion and blackmail.[78]
Initially, members of the union did not believe the charges, and
support for Beck was strong,[79] but
after three months of continuous allegations of wrong-doing many
rank-and-file Teamsters withdrew their support and openly called
for Beck to resign.[80] Beck
initially refused to address the allegations, but broke his silence
and denounced the committee's inquiry on March 6.[81] But
even as the committee conducted its investigation, the Teamsters
chartered even more paper locals.[82] In
mid-March 1957, Jimmy Hoffa was arrested for allegedly trying to
bribe a Senate aide.[83] Hoffa
denied the charges, but the arrest trigged additional
investigations and more arrests and indictments over the following
weeks.[84] A
week later, Beck admitted to receiving an interest-free $300,000
loan from the Teamsters which he had never repaid, and Senate
investigators claimed that loans to Beck and other union officials
(and their businesses) had cost the union more than $700,000.[85] Beck
appeared before the select committee for the first time on March
25, 1957, and invoked his Fifth
Amendment right against self-incrimination 117 times.[86] The
McClellan Committee turned its focus to Hoffa and other Teamsters
officials, and presented testimony and evidence alleging widespread
corruption in Hoffa-controlled Teamster units.[70][87]

Several historic legal developments came out of the select
committee's investigation. The scandals uncovered by the McClellan
committee, which affected not only the Teamsters but several other
unions, led directly to the passage of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure
Act (also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act) in 1959.[88] The
right of union officials to exercise their Fifth Amendment rights
was upheld and a significant refinement of constitutional law made
when the U.S. Supreme Court
reaffirmed the right of union officials to not divulge the location
of union records in Curcio v. United States,354 U.S. 118
(1957).[89]

Rank-and-file anger over the McClellan Committee's revelations
eventually led Beck to retire from the Teamsters and allowed Jimmy
Hoffa to take over. Immediately after his testimony in late March
1957, Beck won approval from the union's executive board to
establish a $1 million fund to defend himself and the union from
the committee's allegations.[90] But
member outrage at the expenditure was significant, and permission
to establish the fund rescinded.[91]
Member anger continued to grow throughout the spring,[92] and
Beck's majority support on the executive board vanished.[93] Beck
was called before the McClellan Committee again in early May 1957,
and additional interest-free loans and other potentially illegal
and unethical financial transactions exposed.[94] Based
on these revelations, Beck was indicted for tax evasion on May 2,
1957.[95]

Beck's legal troubles led him to retire and Hoffa to win
election to the union presidency. Support for Beck among the
membership evaporated.[96] Beck
announced on May 25 he would not run for re-election in
October.[97] The
announcement created chaos among the union leadership,[98] and
despite additional indictments Hoffa announced he would seek the
presidency on July 19.[99]
Rank-and-file support for Hoffa was strong,[100]
although there were some attempts to organize an opposition
candidate.[101]
Hoffa's opponents asked a federal judge to postpone the election,
but the request was granted only temporarily and Hoffa was duly
elected General President of the union on October 4, 1957.[102]
Beck offered to retire early to allow Hoffa to take control of the
union in December.[103] A
federal district court barred Hoffa from taking power unless he was
acquitted in his wiretapping trial.[104] The
ruling was upheld by a court of appeals, but the trial ended in a
hung jury on December 19, 1957, and Hoffa assumed the presidency on
February 1, 1958.[105]

The worsening corruption scandal led the AFL-CIO to eject the
Teamsters. AFL-CIO President George Meany, worried that corruption
scandals plaguing a number of unions at the time might lead to
harsh regulation of unions or even the withdrawal of federal labor
law protection, began an anti-corruption drive in April 1956.[106] New
rules were enacted by the labor federation's executive council that
provided for the removal of vice presidents engaged in corruption
as well as the ejection of unions considered corrupt.[107] The
McClellan Committee's investigation only worsened the dispute
between the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters.[108] In
January 1957, the AFL-CIO proposed a new a rule which would bar
officers of the federation from continuing to hold office if they
exercised their Fifth Amendment rights in a corruption
investigation.[109]
Beck opposed the new rule,[110] but
the Ethical Practices Committee of AFL-CIO instituted rule on
January 31, 1957.[111] The
Teamsters were given 90 days to reform,[112] but
Beck retaliated by promising more raids on AFL-CIO member unions if
the union was ousted.[113]
Beck's opposition prompted a successful move by Meany to remove
Beck from AFL-CIO executive council on grounds of corruption.[114]
After extensive hearings and appeals which lasted from July to
September 1957, the AFL-CIO voted on September 25, 1957, to eject
the Teamsters if the union did not institute reforms within 30
days.[115]
Beck refused to institute any reforms, and the election of Jimmy
Hoffa (whom the AFL-CIO considered as corrupt as Beck) led the
labor federation to suspend the Teamsters union on October 24,
1957.[116]
Meany offered to keep the Teamsters within the AFL-CIO if Hoffa
resigned as president, but Hoffa refused and the formal expulsion
occurred on December 6, 1957.[117]

The Teamsters were not the only corrupt union in the AFL-CIO by
any means. Another was the International
Longshoremen's Association (ILA), which represented stevedores in most East Coast ports. The
Teamsters had long desired to bring all shipping and transportation
workers into the union, so that no product could be moved anywhere
in the U.S. without it being touched by Teamsters hands. As the ILA
came under increasing attack for permitting corruption in its
locals, President Beck sought to bring the ILA into the
Teamsters.[118] The
AFL ousted the ILA in September 1953, and formed the International
Brotherhood of Longshoremen-AFL (IBL-AFL) to represent longshoremen
on the Great Lakes and East Coast.[119] The
Teamsters planned to raid the expelled union, and may even have
hoped to seize control of the IBL-AFL.[120]
Beck undertook a campaign to bring the ILA back into the AFL in
early 1955,[121] but
the election of mob associate Anthony "Tough Tony" Anastasio as an
ILA vice president forced Beck to end the effort.[122] But
even as Beck backed away from any ILA deal, Jimmy Hoffa secretly
negotiated a major package of financial and staff aid to the ILA
and then went public with the deal – forcing Beck to accept it as a
fait accompli or risk embarrassing Hoffa.[123] The
AFL-CIO threatened to expel the Teamsters if it aided the ILA.[124]
Beck fought Hoffa over the ILA aid package and won, withdrawing the
offer to the ILA in the spring of 1956.[125]

The ILA was not the only union the Teamsters sought to merge
with. The union attempted to merge with the Mine, Mill & Smelter
Workers in 1955, but the effort failed.[126] The
union also sought a merger with the Brewery Workers, but the
smaller union rejected the offer.[127]
When the overture failed, the Teamsters raided the Brewery Workers,
leading to fierce protests by the CIO.[128]

Raiding by the Teamsters was such a serious issue that it
prompted the AFL and CIO, which had attempted to sign a no-raid
agreement for years, to finally negotiate and implement such a pact
in December 1953.[129]
President Beck initially refused to sign the agreement, and
threatened to take the Teamsters out of the AFL if forced to adhere
to it.[130]
Three months after the pact was signed, the Teamsters agreed to
submit to the terms of the no-raid agreement.[131]
Shortly thereafter, the AFL adopted Article 20 of its constitution,
which prevented its member unions from raiding one another.[132] The
union's affection for raiding led it to initially oppose the
AFL-CIO merger in January 1955, but it quickly reversed itself.[133]

The rise,
fall and disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa

Hoffa achieved his goal of unifying all freight drivers under a
single collective bargaining agreement, the National Master Freight
Agreement, in 1964. Hoffa was a skillful strategist who used the
grievance procedures of the agreement, which authorized selective
strikes against particular employers, to police the agreement or,
if Hoffa thought that it served the union's interest, to drive
marginal employers out of the industry. The union won substantial
gains for its members, fostering a nostalgic image of the Hoffa era
as the golden age for Teamster drivers. Hoffa also succeeded where
Tobin had failed, concentrating power at the International level,
dominating the conferences which Beck and Dobbs had helped
build.

In addition, Hoffa was instrumental in using the assets of the
Teamsters' pension
plans, particularly the Central States plan, to support Mafia
projects, such as the development of Las Vegas in the 1950s and
1960s. Hoffa was, moreover, defiantly unwilling to reform the union
or limit his own power in response to the attacks from Robert F.
Kennedy, formerly chief counsel to the McClellan Committee,
then Attorney General. Kennedy's Department of
Justice tried to convict Hoffa for a variety of offenses over
the 1960s, finally succeeding on a witness tampering charge in
1964. After exhausting his appeals, Hoffa entered prison in
1967.

Hoffa installed Frank Fitzsimmons, an associate from
his days in Local 299 in Detroit, to hold his place for him while
he served time. Fitzsimmons, however, began to enjoy the exercise
of power in Hoffa's absence; in addition, the organized crime
figures around him found that he was more pliant than Hoffa had
been. While President Nixon's pardon
barred Hoffa from resuming any role in the Teamsters until 1980,
Hoffa challenged the legality of that condition and planned to run
again for presidency of the union, but disappeared in 1975 under
mysterious circumstances. He is presumed dead, although his body
has never been found.

Decentralization,
deregulation and drift

Under General President Frank Fitzsimmons, authority within the
Teamsters was decentralized back into the hands of regional, joint
council, and local leaders. While this helped solidify Fitzsimmons'
own political position in the union, it also made it more difficult
for the union to act decisively on policy issues. Fitzsimmons also
moved the union's political stands slowly to the left,
supporting universal health care, an immediate end to the Vietnam War, urban
renewal, and community organizing. In 1968,
Fitzsimmons and United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther
formed the Alliance for Labor Action, a
new national trade union center
which competed with the AFL-CIO. The Alliance dissolved in 1972
after Reuther's death. While the Teamsters won rich national master
contracts in trucking and package delivery in the 1970s, it did
little to adapt to the changes occurring in the transportation
industry.

A major jurisdictional battle with the United Farm
Workers (UFW) broke out in 1972, and did not end until 1977.
The Teamsters and UFW had both claimed jurisdiction over farm
workers for many years, and in 1967 had signed an agreement
settling their differences. But decentralization of power within
the union led several Teamster leaders in California to repudiate
this agreement without Fitzsimmons' permission and organize large
numbers of field workers. His hand forced, Fitzsimmons ordered
Teamsters contract negotiators to re-open the handful of contracts
it had signed with California growers.[134]The
UFW sued, the AFL-CIO condemned the action, and many employers
negotiated contracts with the Teamsters rather than with the
UFW.[135]
Although an agreement giving UFW jurisidction over field workers
and the Teamsters jurisdiction over packing and warehouse workers
was reached on September 27, 1973, Fitzsimmons reneged on the
agreement within a month and moved ahead with forming a farm
workers regional union in California.[136
][137] The
organizing battles even became violent at times.[138] By
1975, the UFW had won 24 elections and the Teamsters 14; UFW
membership had plummeted to just 6,000 from nearly 70,000 while the
Teamsters farmworker division counted 55,000 workers.[136
][139]
The Teamsters subsequently signed contracts (which many denounced
as sweetheart
deals) with more than 375 California growers.[139][140]
Financially exhausted, the UFW signed an agreement with Fitzsimmons
in March 1977 in which the UFW agreed to seek to organize only
those workers covered by the California
Agricultural Labor Relations Act, while the Teamsters had
jurisdiction over all other agricultural workers.[141]

In October 1973, Fitzsimmons ended the long-running
jurisdictional dispute with the
United Brewery Workers, and the Brewery Workers merged with the
Teamsters.[142]

In 1979 Congress passed legislation that deregulated the freight
industry, removing the Interstate Commerce
Commission's power to impose detailed regulatory tariffs on
interstate carriers. The union tried to fight deregulation by
attempting to bribe Senator Howard Cannon of Nevada. That attempt not only failed, but
resulted in the conviction in 1982 of Roy Williams, the General President
who had succeeded Fitzsimmons in 1981. Williams subsequently
resigned in 1983 as a condition of remaining free on bail while his
appeal proceeded.

Deregulation had catastrophic effects on the Teamsters, opening
up the industry to competition from non-union companies who sought
to cut costs by avoiding unionization and curbing wages. Nearly 200
unionized carriers went out of business in the first few years of
deregulation, leaving thirty percent of Teamsters in the freight
division unemployed. The remaining unionized carriers demanded
concessions in wages, work rules, and hours.

Williams' successor, Jackie Presser, was prepared to grant
most of these concessions in the form of a special freight “relief
rider” that would cut wages by up to 35 percent and establish
two-tier wages. Teamsters for a Democratic
Union, which had grown out of efforts to reject the 1976
freight agreement, launched a successful national campaign to
defeat the relief rider, which was defeated by a vote of 94,086 to
13,082.

The pressure on the freight industry and the national freight
agreement continued, however. By the end of the 1990s the National
Master Freight Agreement, which had covered 500,000 drivers in the
late 1970s, dropped to less than 200,000, with numerous local
riders weakening it further in some areas.

Challenges from within and
without

The decline in working conditions in the freight industry,
combined with long-simmering unhappiness among members employed by
the United Parcel Service, led to the
development of two nationwide dissident groups within the union in
the 1980s: Teamsters for a Democratic
Union (TDU), an assemblage of a number of local efforts, and
the Professional Drivers Council, better known as PROD, which began
as a public interest group affiliated with Ralph Nader that was concerned with worker
safety. The two groups merged in 1979.

TDU was able to win some local offices within the union,
although the International Union often attempted to make those
victories meaningless by marginalizing the officer or the union.
TDU acquired greater prominence, however, with the election reforms
forced on the union by the consent decree it had entered into in
1989 on the eve of trial on a suit brought by the federal
government under the Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

The decree required the direct election of International
officers by the membership, as TDU had been demanding for years
leading up to the decree, to replace the indirect election by
delegates at the union's convention. While the delegates at the
union's 1991 convention balked at amending the Constitution, they
ultimately capitulated under pressure from the government.

That consent decree might not have been possible, however, if it
had not been for the testimony of Roy Williams, who described, in an
affidavit he gave the government in return for a delay of his
imprisonment, his own dealings with organized crime as the
Secretary-Treasurer of a local union in Kansas City and as an
officer of the International Union. The decree also gave the
government the power to install an Independent Review Board with
the power to expel any member of the union for "conduct unbecoming
to the union", which the IRB proceeded to exercise far more
aggressively than the Teamsters officials who had agreed to the
decree had expected.

While the government was pursuing a civil case against the union
as an entity it was also indicting Presser, who had succeeded
Williams as General President, for embezzling from two different
local unions in Cleveland prior to his election as President.
Presser resigned in 1988, but died before his trial was scheduled
to begin. He was succeeded by William J. McCarthy, who came from
the same local that Dan Tobin had led eighty years earlier.

The Independent Review Board (IRB) is a three-member panel
established to investigate and take appropriate action with respect
to "any allegations of corruption," "any allegations of domination
or control or influence" of any part of the Union by organized
crime, and any failure to cooperate fully with the IRB.[143]

Recent
history

Ron Carey won a surprising
victory in the first direct election for General President in the
union's history, defeating two "old guard" candidates, R.V. Durham
and Walter Shea. Carey's slate, supported by TDU, also won nearly
all of the seats on the International Executive Board.

Carey acquired a fair amount of influence within the AFL-CIO,
which had readmitted the Teamsters in 1985. Carey was close with
the new leadership elected in 1995, particularly Richard Trumka of
the United
Mine Workers of America, who became Secretary-Treasurer of the
AFL-CIO under John Sweeney. Carey had
also swung the Teamsters support behind the Democratic Party, a change from past
administrations that had supported the Republican Party. The new administration
set out to break from the past in other ways, making energetic
efforts to head off a vote to oust the union as representative of
Northwest
Airlines' flight attendants, negotiating a breakthrough
agreement covering carhaulers, and supporting local strikes, such
as the one against Diamond Walnuts, to restore the union's
strength.

The Carey administration did not, on the other hand, have much
power in the lower reaches of the Teamster hierarchy: all of the
large regional conferences were run by "old guard" officers, as
were most of the locals. Disagreements between those two camps led
the old guard to campaign against the Carey administration's
proposed dues increase; the Carey administration retaliated by
dissolving the regional conferences, calling them expensive
redundancies and fiefdoms for old guard union officers. and
rearranging the boundaries of some joint councils that had fought
against the dues increase.

The opposition responded by uniting around a single candidate,
James P.
Hoffa, son of James R. Hoffa, to run against Carey in 1996.
Hoffa ran a strong campaign, trading on the mystique still attached
to his late father's name and promising to restore those days of
glory. Carey appeared, however, to have won a close election.

Shortly afterward in 1997, the union initiated a large and
successful strike against UPS. The parcel services
department by that time had become the largest division in the
union.

Carey was removed from the union's leadership by the IRB shortly
thereafter, when evidence that individuals in his office had
arranged for transfer of several thousand dollars to an outside
contractor, which then arranged for another entity to make an
equivalent contribution to the Carey campaign. Carey was indicted
for lying to investigators about his campaign funding but was
acquitted of all charges in a 2001 trial.

In the 1998 election to
succeed Carey, James P. Hoffa was elected handily. He became
president of the Teamsters on March 19, 1999, and took the union in
a more moderate direction, tempering the union's support for
Democrats and attempting to come to terms with powerful Republicans
in Congress.

The union has merged in recent years with a number of unions
from other industries, including the Graphic Communications
International Union, a printing industry union, and the Brotherhood
of Maintenance of Way Employees and Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers, both from the railway industry.

Political
donations

The Teamsters Union is one of the largest labor unions in the
world, as well as the 11th largest campaign contributor in the
United States. While they supported Republicans Ronald Reagan and
George H.W. Bush for President in the
1980s, they have begun leaning largely toward the Democrats in
recent years; they have donated 92% of their $24,418,589 in
contributions since 1990 to the Democratic Party. Though the union
opposed former Pres. George W. Bush's agenda to open US
highways to Mexican truckers, it did previously support Bush's
platform for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. [145] On
July 23, 2008, however, Hoffa announced the union's withdrawal from
the coalition favoring drilling there. Speaking before
environmentalists and union leaders assembled to discuss good jobs
and clean air, Hoffa said, "We are not going to drill our way out
of the energy problems we are facing -- not here and not in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."[146]

^ ab
Montgomery, The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the
State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925, 1987.

^
Sheridan and Innes alleged that Shea had billed locals in
Massachusetts $9.61 for services while charging the national union
$19.44 for the same services. "Drivers Bolt Meeting," Chicago
Daily Tribune, August 9, 1903.

^
Galenson claims that Tobin's "personal honesty was never
challenged..." See: Galenson, The CIO Challenge to the AFL: A
History of the American Labor Movement, 1960, p. 471. Other
historians challenge this conclusion, but conclude any misdeeds
Tobin engaged in are minor compared to those of some Teamsters
leaders. See: Garnel, The Rise of Teamster Power in the
West, 1972; Witwer, Corruption and Reform in the Teamsters
Union, 2003; Phelan, William Green: Biography of a Labor
Leader, 1989.

^
Stark, "White House Link to Conciliate A.F.L.," New York
Times, June 11, 1940; "Tobin, to Aid Flynn, Quits White
House," New York Times, August 27, 1940.

^
"English Labor in War Described By Tobin," New York Times,
September 27, 1942.

^
Stark, "Successor Sought for Miss Perkins," New York
Times, December 11, 1944; "Tobin Endorsed for Labor Post,"
New York Times, January 18, 1945; Hulen, "Successors
Named," New York Times, May 24, 1945; "Dan Tobin Refused 2
Cabinet Offers," New York Times, August 12, 1948.

^
"President Summons 'Labor War Board'," New York Times,
February 5, 1942; "President Meets Joint Labor Group," New York
Times, February 7, 1942; "WLB Demands End of Trucking Strike,"
New York Times, August 25, 1942; "Tobin Demands Unions
Punish Strikers," New York Times, March 6, 1943; "Tobin
Bids Public Insist Work Go On," New York Times, June 7,
1943; "Truck Tie-Up Halts Freight in South," Associated
Press, October 11, 1943; "3 Breweries Face Seizure In Strike,"
New York Times, January 14, 1945; "Deliveries Halted on
Certified Milk," New York Times, January 15, 1945; "Tobin
Tells Union to Ignore Pickets," Associated Press, May 31,
1945.

^
Raskin, "Union Vote Today," New York Times, September 12,
1946; Raskin, "Situation Is Eased," New York Times,
September 13, 1946; Lissner, "Tobin Bids Union End Parcel Strike,"
New York Times, September 19, 1946; Raskin, "Express
Strikers Picket Airfield," New York Times, October 10,
1947; "Union Head Scores Express Walkout," New York Times,
October 13, 1947; "Tobin Warns Union On Wage Demands," New York
Times, June 4, 1948.

^
Signing the affidavit provided the Teamsters with the protection of
the NLRA, which was an important tool in the Teamsters' fight with
the Brewery Workers. "Tobin Opposes Law On Labor Disputes," New
York Times, January 19, 1947; "Tobin Signs Affidavit," New
York Times, September 16, 1947; Davies, "Tobin Again Heads
Teamsters' Union," New York Times, August 16, 1947.

^
The NLRB subsequently held an election to determine who should
represent the workers at Boeing. The Machinists won the 1949
election by a 2-to-1 margin. See "Beck Said to Top Tobin in
Teamsters," New York Times, September 19, 1948; McCann,
Blood in the Water: A History of District Lodge 751,
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers,
1989; Rodden, The Fighting Machinists: A Century of
Struggle, 1984; Raskin, "Union Leader-And Big Business Man,"
New York Times, November 15, 1953.

^
"D.J. Tobin Set to Retire," New York Times, September 5,
1952; "Battle for Control of Union Is Revealed," New York
Times, October 7, 1952.

^
Changes to the union constitution included expanding the number of
vice-presidents, expanding the number of seats on the executive
board, expanding the number of delegates, and enhancing the powers
and authority of the president. "Teamsters Raise Tobin's Pay
$20,000," New York Times, October 15, 1952; "Teamster
Chiefs Defeat Opposition," New York Times, October 16,
1952; "Curbs On Officers Rejected By Teamsters," New York
Times, October 17, 1952; "Teamsters Elect Beck As President,"
Associated Press, October 18, 1952.

^
Levey, "A. F. L. Elects Beck to Post In Council," New York
Times, August 14, 1953; Loftus, "Battle for Power Expected in
A.F.L.," New York Times, August 19, 1953.

^
"Teamsters to Ask Nation-Wide Pacts," New York Times,
September 22, 1953; "Peace Plan Set Up In Truck Industry," New
York Times, August 18, 1955.

^
Grutzner, "Racket in Produce By Trucking Union Is Bared At
Inquiry," New York Times, January 27, 1953; Raskin,
"A.F.L. Heads Tell Dockers to Clean Union or Get Out," New York
Times, February 4, 1953; "5 Teamster Heads Suspended By Beck,"
New York Times, October 23, 1953; "Unionists Held for
Trial," Associated Press, October 28, 1953; "7 Bound Over
for Trial," New York Times, October 29, 1953; Loftus,
"Beck Takes Over Westchester Unit," New York Times,
December 11, 1953; "Labor Inquiries Pushed," United Press
International, December 27, 1953; "Inquiry Accuses Teamster
Local," United Press International, February 20, 1954;
"Monopoly Is Seen In Garment Wear," New York Times, April
19, 1955; Ranzal, "U.S. Will Investigate Teamster Rule Here,"
New York Times, March 24, 1956.

^
"House Blasts Kansas City Tie-Up," New York Times,
September 2, 1953.

^
A "paper local" is a local union, chartered by an international
union or self-chartered, established for the purposes of fraud. It
may have no members; the "members" may be relatives or individuals
involved in organized crime rather than workers; or the union may
claim to represent workers but in fact no relationship has been
established. The holder of the charter for the paper local charter
often enters into a sweetheart contract with an employer,
or uses it as extortion (threatening to unionize the workers unless
he receives a payoff). Paper locals are denounced by the AFL-CIO
Code of Ethical Practices. See: Doherty, Industrial and Labor
Relations Terms: A Glossary, 1989; "The Conglomerate of
Crime," Time, August 22, 1969.

^
Raskin, "Teamster Units Stir New Storm," New York Times,
February 4, 1956; Raskin, "Hoffa of the Teamsters Forcing Labor
Showndown," New York Times, March 4, 1956.

^
Ranzal, "7 Teamster Units Face U.S. Inquiry," New York
Times, March 30, 1956; Kihss, Peter. "Local Chartered With No
Members," New York Times, April 25, 1956; Kihss,
"Teamsters' Rules Appall U.S. Judge," New York Times,
April 26, 1956; "Racketeer Is Guilty of Contempt," New York
Times, May 10, 1956; Levey, "Writ Restores Lacey As Teamster
Leader," New York Times, May 13, 1956; "Dio Indicted Here
In Union Sell-Out," New York Times, June 20, 1956; "Dio's
Locals Face Charter Reviews," New York Times, June 21,
1956; Raskin, "Senators Study Dio Union Tie-In," New York
Times, September 14, 1956; Roth, "Dio and Unionist Named
Extorters," New York Times, October 30, 1956; "Teamsters
Spurn 'Dio Local' Order," New York Times, December 5,
1956; "Lacey Will Defy Teamster Chief," New York Times,
December 6, 1956; Raskin, "Dio 'Paper' Unions Offer First Dues,"
New York Times, December 13, 1956; Raskin, "O'Rourke Wins
Post," New York Times, January 9, 1957.

^
Loftus, "Teamsters Aide Balks at Inquiry on Union Rackets," New
York Times. January 19, 1957; Raskin, "Teamsters Avoid
Challenge to U.S.," New York Times, January 24, 1957;
Raskin, "Teamsters Seek Way to Avoid a Showdown," New York
Times, January 27, 1957.

^
"New Senate Unit to Widen Inquiry In Labor Rackets," New York
Times, January 24, 1957; "Teamster Study Is 3 Months Old,"
New York Times, May 26, 1957; "Senate Votes Inquiry on
Labor Rackets," New York Times, January 31, 1957.

^ "Chapter 18. Records of
Senate Select Committees, 1789-1988," in Guide to the Records
of the United States Senate at the National Archives, 1789-1989:
Bicentennial Edition, 1989.

^
"Beck Visiting in the Bahamas," New York Times, February
6, 1957; "Citation Is Asked for 3 Teamsters," New York
Times, February 7, 1957; "Beck On Airliner Bound for London,"
New York Times, February 8, 1957; Love, "Beck Denies Aim
to Dodge Inquiry," New York Times, February 9, 1957;
"Tourist Beck," New York Times, February 10, 1957; Raskin,
"Beck Slips Back to U.S. and Faces Senate Subpoena," New York
Times, March 11, 1957.

^
Raskin, "Union Dissolves Four Dio Locals," New York Times,
February 15, 1957; Loftus, "Senators Study Two Unions Here,"
New York Times, February 16, 1957; "4 Teamsters' Aides
Cited for Contempt In Balking Inquiry," New York Times,
February 20, 1957; "Records Destroyed, M'Clellan Charges," New
York Times, February 22, 1957; "More Data of Union Reported
Missing," Associated Press, February 23, 1957; "Teamster
Admits Destroying Data," New York Times, March 14, 1957;
"A Teamster Local, Under Fire, Robbed," United Press
International, March 17, 1957; "Wiretaps on Dio and Hoffa
Cited," New York Times, February 23, 1957; "Labor Inquiry
Gets Secret Tape Talks," New York Times, February 24,
1957; Mooney, "M'Clellan Hunts Auditor of Union and Son of Beck,"
New York Times, April 28, 1957.

^
Loftus, "Witnesses Link Teamsters Union to Underworld," New
York Times, February 27, 1957; Loftus, "Teamsters Chiefs Tied
to Vice Plot and to Gambling," New York Times, February
28, 1957; Loftus, "Teamsters Chiefs Charged With Plot to Rule
Oregon, Sought All Law Enforcement Powers," New York
Times, March 2, 1957; Loftus, "Oregon Gambler Tells of
Pay-Off," New York Times, March 7, 1957; Loftus, "Portland
Mayor Accused of Bribe," New York Times, March 8, 1957;
Loftus, "Portland Called Vice-Ridden Now," New York Times,
March 9, 1957; Loftus, "Teamsters Paid Gamblers' Bills," New
York Times, March 13, 1957; "Holmes Denies Charge," New
York Times, March 14, 1957; Loftus, "Brewster Denies
Teamsters' Plot to Rule Rackets," New York Times, March
16, 1957; "Portland Mayor Seized In Racket, Prosecutor Held,"
New York Times, March 29, 1957.

^
Davies, "Teamster Rally on Coast Backs Accused Leaders," New
York Times, March 3, 1957; "Beck Asks Members to Support
Leaders," New York Times, March 20, 1957.

^
Raskin, "Teamsters Stir Against Leaders," New York Times,
March 22, 1957; "Protests Rise Among Teamsters Against Leaders Now
Under Fire," New York Times, March 23, 1957; Raskin,
"Teamster Sentiment Grows to Remove Beck and Aides," New York
Times, March 28, 1957; "Beck Effigy Hanged By Union In
Yakima," Associated Press, March 29, 1957; "Portland
Teamsters Fight Leaders," Associated Press, March 29,
1957.

^
Raskin, "Teamsters Hear From Their Chief," New York Times,
March 7, 1957.

^
Loftus, "F.B.I. Seizes Hoffa In A Plot To Bribe Senate Staff Aide,"
New York Times, March 14, 1957.

^
Loftus, "Unionist Denies Bribery," New York Times, March
15, 1957; Loftus, "U.S. Jury Indicts 4 Teamster Aides Silent In
Inquiry," New York Times, March 19, 1957; Loftus, "U.S.
Jury Indicts Hoffa, Attorney," New York Times, March 20,
1957; "8 Hoffa Aides in Detroit Get Subpoenas to Appear Before U.S.
Rackets Jury Here," New York Times, March 20, 1957;
"Hoffa, Attorney Plead Not Guilty," New York Times, March
30, 1957; Loftus, "Hoffa Urges Court to Quash Charges," New
York Times, April 23, 1957; Ranzal, "Jury Here Indicts Hoffa
On Wiretap," New York Times, May 15, 1957.

^
"Beck Says Union Lent Him $300,000 Without Interest," New York
Times, March 18, 1957; Drury, "Teamster Loss Put At $709,420,"
New York Times, March 23, 1957; Morris, "Inquiry Tracing
Funds Beck Used," New York Times, March 24, 1957; "Million
Teamster Loan To Tracks Under Study," New York Times,
March 30, 1957.

^
"Inquiry to Stress History of Hoffa," Associated Press,
August 11, 1957; Drury, "Two Racketeers Tied to O'Rourke," New
York Times, August 16, 1957; Mooney, "Inquiry Set to Press
Hoffa on Role Here," New York Times, August 18, 1957;
Loftus, "Hoffa Says He Got $120,000 In Loans Without Security,"
New York Times, August 21, 1957; Loftus, "Senators Reveal
Hoffa Bid to Get Dio In Teamsters," New York Times, August
22, 1957; Loftus, "Hoffa Is Accused of Using Dio in Bid for Control
Here," New York Times, August 23, 1957; "M'Clellan Seeks A
Perjury Check On Hoffa Replies," New York Times, August
25, 1957; Drury, "New Fund Abuses Charged to Hoffa," New York
Times, September 24, 1957; Drury, "M'Clellan Seeks Teamsters'
Files," New York Times, October 11, 1957; "Hoffa Called
Ruler of Hoodlum Empire," New York Times, March 26,
1958.

^
"Union Curbs Foreseen," New York Times, May 13, 1957;
"M'Clellan Sees Stiff Labor Law," New York Times, May 18,
1957; Loftus, "Congress Disclosures Forecast New Labor
Legislation," New York Times, June 2, 1957; Raskin, "White
House Gives Program to Curb Abuses in Unions," New York
Times, December 6, 1957; Higgins and Janus, The Developing
Labor Law: The Board, the Courts, and the National Labor Relations
Act, 2006; Wilson, "Conquering the Enemy Within: The Case for
Reform of the Landrum-Griffin Act," Journal of Labor
Research, December 2005; Lee, Eisenhower &
Landrum-Griffin: A Study in Labor-Management Politics, 1990;
Jacobs, Mobsters, Unions, and Feds: The Mafia and the American
Labor Movement, 2006.

^
"Beck To Use Fund To Tell His Story," New York Times,
March 29, 1957; "Beck Insists Board Approve Publicity," New
York Times, March 30, 1957.

^
Loftus, "Union Said to Bar 5-Year Beck Plan," New York
Times, April 2, 1957; Loftus, "Union Curbs Beck in Publicity
Plan," New York Times, April 3, 1957; "Collusion Check Set
By Senators," New York Times, April 7, 1957.

^
"Beck Asked to Resign," New York Times, March 30, 1957;
Raskin, "Teamster Leadership Strongly Entrenched," New York
Times, March 31, 1957; Perlmutter, "Teamsters Here Bar $1
Increase in Dues, Vent Anger on Beck," New York Times,
April 1, 1957; Raskin, "Beck Is Rebuffed By Union's Board," New
York Times, April 5, 1957; "Teamsters In Protest," New
York Times, April 7, 1957; "Teamsters In Protest," New
York Times, April 15, 1957; "1,000 Teamsters Ask Inquiry,"
New York Times, April 29, 1957.

^
Loftus, "Teamster Board to Meet In Texas," New York Times,
April 12, 1957; Loftus, "Teamsters Start New Fight On Foes,"
New York Times, April 13, 1957; Raskin, "Beck 'Taking Rap'
On Funds, He Says," New York Times, April 16, 1957;
Raskin, "Beck No Longer Sure of Teamster Control," New York
Times, April 21, 1957; Loftus, "Teamsters Map Fighting
Defense," New York Times, May 6, 1957.

^
Loftus, "Beck Called Back By Senate Inquiry," New York
Times, May 2, 1957; Loftus, "Beck Again Fails to Give
Answers," New York Times, May 9, 1957; Loftus, "Kickback
to Beck On Loan Charged," New York Times, May 10, 1957;
Loftus, "Loan of $200,000 to Beck Revealed at Senate Inquiry,"
New York Times, May 14, 1957; Drury, "Inquiry Is Told
Shefferman Sought $7l,500 in Sale of Land to Teamsters," New
York Times, May 16, 1957; Loftus, "$100,000 Repaid By Beck to
Union in Last 2 Weeks," New York Times, May 17, 1957;
Loftus, "Beck Aide Pleads the 5th 71 Times," New York
Times, May 18, 1957.

^
"Beck Is Indicted," New York Times, May 3, 1957; Loftus,
"Beck Posts A Bond," New York Times, May 4, 1957; "Becks
Indicted In Sale of Cars," New York Times, July 13,
1957.

^
Loftus, "Teamster Ouster of Beck Foreseen Before Fall Vote,"
New York Times, May 12, 1957; "Oust-Beck Drive Gaining In
West," New York Times, May 19, 1957; "Beck Is Denounced In
Teamster Local," New York Times, May 21, 1957; Raskin,
"Teamsters Here Ask Beck Ouster," New York Times, May 23,
1957.

^
Walz, "Beck Won't Run For Re-Election," New York Times,
May 26, 1957.

^
"Teamster Chiefs Clashing Over a Successor to Beck," New York
Times, May 27, 1957; "Meany Says Beck Should Quit Now,"
New York Times, June 8, 1957; "Beck Said to Make Union
Short of Cash," New York Times, June 12, 1957.

^
"Union's Support for Hoffa Grows," New York Times, July
21, 1957; Raskin, "Teamsters Set to 'Draft' Hoffa," New York
Times, July 25, 1957; Johnston, "Hoffa Will Run For Beck's
Post," New York Times, July 27, 1957; Davies, "Hoffa Maps
Drive For Wider Power," New York Times, August 3,
1957.

^ Hoffa's support was so strong
that he did not need the votes of the paper locals. See: Huston,
"U.S. Judge Blocks Teamsters' Vote," New York Times,
September 28, 1957; Raskin, "Hoffa's Election Now Is Held Sure,"
New York Times, September 29, 1957; Huston, "Teamsters'
Poll Upheld In Appeal," New York Times, September 29,
1957; Raskin, "Hoffa Men Begin A Drive to Purge His Foes In Union,"
New York Times, October 1, 1957; Raskin, "Coast Delegates
Switch to Hoffa," New York Times. October 2, 1957; Raskin,
"Hoffa Is Elected Teamsters Head," New York Times, October
5, 1957.

^ Raskin, "Beck Will Retire Early
For Hoffa," New York Times, October 4, 1957.

^ "Hoffa Foes Plan A New Road
Block," New York Times, October 14, 1957; Lewis, "Court
Bars Hoffa and New Officers From Union Posts," New York
Times, October 15, 1957; "U.S. Judge Blocks Hoffa Ascent to
Presidency of the Teamsters," New York Times, October 23,
1957.

^ Loftus, "Meany Summons Council
to Weigh Beck Suspension," New York Times, April 17, 1956;
Raskin, "Meany Wins Round Against Underworld," New York
Times, April 29, 1956; Loftus, "A.F.L.-C.I.O. Votes to Curb
Rackets," New York Times, August 30, 1956; Loftus, "Union
Questioned On Hiding of Data," New York Times, January 18,
1957.

^ "Expansion Talks Set By
Teamsters," New York Times, February 21, 1957; "Carey
Denounces Beck," New York Times, March 5, 1957.

^ Drury, "2 Union Leaders Hint
Beck Ouster," New York Times, March 25, 1957;
"A.F.L.-C.I.O. Calls Parley on Beck," New York Times,
March 27, 1957; Loftus, "Beck Suspended From 2 Key Jobs By Labor
Chiefs," New York Times, March 30, 1957; Raskin,
"Teamsters Brand A.F.L.-C.I.O. Action On Beck Illegal," New
York Times, April 17, 1957; "A.F.L.-C.I.O. Bars Deal With
Beck," New York Times, April 18, 1957; "Beck Opens Fight
On Labor Ouster," New York Times, April 20, 1957; Loftus,
"A.F.L.-C.I.O. Unit Lays Corruption to Beck's Union," New York
Times, May 7, 1957; Katz, "Teamster Ouster Hinted By Meany,"
New York Times, May 8, 1957; Spiegel, "Meany Arraigns
Labor 'Traitors'," New York Times, May 11, 1957; Loftus,
"Labor-Union Tradition Limits Action on Beck," New York
Times, May 12, 1957; Loftus, "Meany Will Listen to Teamsters'
Woe," New York Times, May 15, 1957; Loftus, "Beck Is
Expelled By Labor Council for Fund Misuse," New York
Times, May 21, 1957.

^ Loftus, "A.F.L.-C.I.O. Doubts
Teamster Reform," New York Times, July 7, 1957; Loftus,
"Labor Ethics Unit Recalls 2 Unions," New York Times, July
19, 1957; Loftus, "Teamsters Defy A.F.L.-C.I.O. 'Court'," New
York Times, July 26, 1957; Loftus, "Top Labor Body Sets
Showdown With Hoffa," New York Times, August 11, 1957;
Loftus, "Meany Silent on Hoffa Status," New York Times,
August 16, 1957; Hill, "Teamsters Draft A.F.L.-C.I.O. Reply,"
New York Times, August 29, 1957; "Teamster Chiefs, At
Labor Hearing, Deny Corruption," New York Times, September
6, 1957; Raskin, "Ouster of Teamsters Now Appears Likely," New
York Times, September 8, 1957; Raskin, "Meany Demands Hoffa
Rejection," New York Times, September 10, 1957; "Meany Set
to Bar Corrupt Unions," Associated Press, September 12,
1957; Raskin, "Labor Prepares Teamster Ouster," New York
Times, September 17, 1957; Raskin, "Teamster Union 'Indicted'
By Ethical Practices Group," New York Times, September 18,
1957; Raskin, "A.F.L.-C.I.O. Accuses Hoffa of Aiding Union
Criminals," New York Times, September 19, 1957; Raskin,
"Teamster Board Fights A.F.L.-C.I.O.," New York Times,
September 20, 1957; Raskin, "Teamsters Seek A.F.L.-C.I.O. Delay,"
New York Times, September 21, 1957; "Teamsters Bar Answer
to Labor," Associated Press, September 22, 1957; Raskin,
"Deadline Is Set For Teamsters," New York Times, September
24, 1957; Raskin, "Teamsters Given Month to Reform By Labor
Chiefs," New York Times, September 26, 1957.

^ "A.F.L.-C.I.O. to Go Ahead With
Expulsion of Teamsters," New York Times, December 4, 1957;
Raskin, "Meany Will Drop Teamster Ouster If Hoffa Gets Out,"
New York Times, December 5, 1957; "Teamsters Await
Expulsion Today," New York Times, December 6, 1957;
Raskin, "A.F.L.-C.I.O. Ousts Teamsters Union By Vote of 5 to 1,"
New York Times, December 7, 1957.

^ Raskin, "Dock Local Bolts to
A.F.L. Teamsters in First Secession," New York Times,
September 3, 1953.

^ According to the Teamsters, but
disputed by UFW, these contracts had purposefully low wages and
benefits so as not to make the UFW contracts look bad. See:
"Teamsters End a Truce With Chavez's United Farm Workers." New
York Times. December 15, 1972.

^ Turner, Wallace. "Teamsters
Sued by Chavez's Union." New York Times. January 5, 1973;
Shabecoff, Philip. "Meany Criticizes Teamsters' Drive." New
York Times. April 19, 1973; "Chavez Tackles the Teamsters."
New York Times. April 22, 1973; Shabecoff, Philip. "Chavez
Union Struggling for Survival." New York Times. June 27,
1973; "Teamsters Repudiate Contracts As Chavez Quits Grape Talks."
New York Times. August 11, 1973.

^ "Chavez Says Pact Means
Teamsters Will Leave Fields." New York Times. September
29, 1973; "Meany Hints Teamster Accord With Chavez May Be Near
End." New York Times. October 16, 1973; Shabecoff, Philip.
"Teamsters Shift Stand on Coast." New York Times. November
8, 1973; "Meany Says Teamsters Renege On a Farm Labor Peace
Accord." New York Times. November 17, 1973; "Teamsters
Start Farm Union Local." New York Times. June 7, 1974;
"Teamsters Local Termed in 'Chaos'." New York Times.
November 10, 1974.

^ Caldwell, Earl. "Picket Shot,
Many More Arrested in Grape Strike." New York Times.
August 3, 1973; "New Strife Nears in Grape Dispute." New York
Times. September 16, 1973.

Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the
United States. Vol. 3: The Policies and Practices of the American
Federation of Labor, 1900-1909. Paperback ed. New York:
International Publishers, 1964. ISBN 0717803899

McCann, John. Blood in the Water: A History of District
Lodge 751, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace
Workers. Olympia, Wash.: Evergreen State College Bookstore,
June 1989. ISBN 9990014981

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (also just called the Teamsters) is an Americanlabor union of truck drivers. With over 1.4 million members, it is one of the largest unions in the United States.

History

The Teamsters was founded in 1903, when most packages and other goods were delivered by a team of horses or oxen.